ever exercise the influence which this early religious crude and extremely poor, but probably no modern textbook will pared with the primers and first readers we have to-day it seems tional consciousness and the beginning of the national life. Com text exer HA9696969696969696969666 Spiritual Milk For AMERICAN BABES, Drawn out of the Breafts of both Teftaments, By JOHN COTTON. HAT hathGod done for you? ETTER is a little with the Fear of OME unto Chrift all ye that labour Queft. What had made me, he and are heavy laden, and he will Anf. God hath keepeth me, and he can fave me. Q. What is GOD? A God is a Spirit of himself and for himself. Q. How many Gods be there? A. There be but One GOD in three Per fons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. Q. How did God make you? give you Reft. A. In my firf Parents holy and righteous. F Q Are you then born Holy and Righteous? A. Adam's Sin imputed to me, and a cor- Q. What is your corrupt Nature? O not the abominable Thing which I XCEPT a Man be born again he Heart of a Child, but the Roof Cone Tection fhall drive it from him. GRIEVE not the Holy Spirit, lest T is good for me to draw near unto I God. AN ALPHABET OF LESSONS FOR YOUTH FIG. 43. Two OTHER PAGES FROM THE "NEW ENGLAND PRIMER' books in the schools of the colonies. natural continuation, and constituted the main further reading to sin." The Psalter, the Testament, and the Bible were its It has been said of it that "it taught millions to read, and not one cised over both children and adults during our colonial period. England Primer (Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1899). with an historical introduction, is Paul Leicester Ford's The New An inexpensive photographic reprint of an edition of 1727, CHAPTER XVI THE RISE OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY THE Readings contained in this chapter deal with the rise of the study of the modern mathematical, astronomical, and physical sciences as a still further expression of the new critical, questioning spirit awakened by the Revival of Learning; the beginnings of modern scientific method, and its application to the problems of the universe; and the formulation of this method and its fruitfulness in the hands of modern investigators. The first selection (203) is from Macaulay, and not only sets forth the fundamental defects of all ancient science, but also shows how the ancient scientific purpose differed from the modern. The seconds election (204), from an old German chronicle, is a good illustration of the wonderful and miraculous, which flourished throughout the whole Middle Ages and made scientific progress impossible. The third selection (205) is an extract from the dedicatory letter of Copernicus, prefixed to his revolutionary volume (1543) on the motions of the heavenly bodies. Modern scientific methods and discovery clearly date from the publication of this book. The extract reveals the new method of thinking, and is as clear an example of the modern attitude and way of thinking as was the work of Petrarch. The next extract (206), describing how Galileo discovered the satellites of Jupiter (1610), also is a wonderfully clear example of modern scientific reasoning. Modern scientific investigation was unfortunate in its birth, in that it was ushered into the world just as the growing tolerance of the Church, which had marked the latter half of the fifteenth century and the opening years of the sixteenth, was changing to an attitude of suspicion and critical reaction as a result of the Protestant Revolts then sweeping Europe. In lands strongly Protestant this reaction manifested itself but slightly, and in England scarcely at all, but in strong Catholic countries, and especially in Italy, it strove to suppress new thinking as dangerous to orthodoxy. The Spanish Inquisition, a sort of mediæval inquisitorial grand jury, was revived, and became zealous in tracking down and punishing offenders. One of these was Galileo Galilei, a professor at Pisa, who had made many remarkable scientific discoveries. For defending the Copernican theory he was called to Rome (1615), compelled to recant his "error" (1616) to escape the stake, and for daring later (1632) again to write on the theory was compelled to "abjure his error" (207), and was made a virtual prisoner of the Inquisition for the remainder of his life. The selection is introduced to show how far the forces of reaction were stimulated, a century after Magellan's voyage, spurred on by the religious hatreds and warfare then raging in Europe. The two selections which conclude the chapter deal with the organizing work of Lord Francis Bacon. The first (208) is an extract from his famous Novum Organum, in which he sets forth some of the difficulties the new scholars of the time had to face. The second (209) is Lord Macaulay's estimate as to the importance for modern thought of the organizing work of Bacon. 203. Attitude of the Ancients toward Scientific Study (T. B. Macaulay, Essay on Lord Bacon; Edinburgh Review, July, 1837. Also in his collected Essays) Macaulay, in setting forth how completely Bacon's work was dominated by the desire that philosophy and science should bear fruit, draws the following contrast between the ideas as to scientific study held by the ancients and those aimed at by Bacon. ... The ancient philosophy disdained to be useful, and was content to be stationary. It dealt largely in theories of moral perfection, which were so sublime that they never could be more than theories; in attempts to solve insoluable enigmas; in exhortations to the attainment of unattainable frames of mind. It could not condescend to the humble office of ministering to the comfort of human beings. All the schools contemned that office as degrading; some censured it as immoral. The ancient philosophers did not neglect natural science; but they did not cultivate it for the purpose of increasing the power and ameliorating the condition of man. The taint of barrenness had spread from ethical to physical speculations. Seneca wrote largely on natural philosophy, and magnified the importance of that study. But why? Not because it tended to assuage suffering, to multiply the conveniences of life, to extend the empire of man over the material world; but solely because it tended to raise the mind above low cares, to separate it from the body, to exercise its subtility in the solution of very obscure questions. Thus natural philosophy was considered in the light merely of a mental exercise. It was made subsidiary to the art of disputation; and it consequently proved altogether barren of useful discoveries. To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god. The aim of the Baconian philosophy was to provide man with what he requires while he continues to be man. The aim of the Platonic philosophy was to raise us far above vulgar wants. The aim of the Baconian philosophy was to supply our vulgar wants. The former aim was noble; but the latter was attainable. Plato drew a good bow; but, like Ascestes in Vergil, he aimed at the stars; and therefore, though there was no want of strength or skill, the shot was thrown away. His arrow was indeed followed by a track of dazzling radience, but it struck nothing. . . . Bacon fixed his eye on a mark which was placed on the earth, and within bow shot, and hit it in the white. The philosophy of Plato began in words and ended in words, noble words indeed, words such as were to be expected from the finest of human intellects exercising boundless dominion over the finest of human languages. The philosophy of Bacon began in observations and ended in arts. The boast of the ancient philosophers was that their doctrine formed the minds of men to a high degree of wisdom and virtue. This was indeed the only practical good which the most celebrated of those teachers even pretended to effect; and undoubtedly, if they had effected this, they would have deserved far higher praise than if they had discovered the most salutary medicines or constructed the most powerful machines. But the truth is that, in those very matters in which alone they professed to do any good to mankind, in those very matters for the sake of which they neglected the vulgar interests of mankind, they did nothing, or worse than nothing. They promised what was impracticable; they despised what was practicable; they filled the world with long words and long beards; and they left it as wicked and as ignorant as they found it. 204. The Credulity of Medieval People (Sebastian Franck's Chronica, published in 1531; trans. in Bax's German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages, pp. 268-71. London, 1894) The following selection from this important German chronicle gives the reader a good illustration of the ready credulity of mediæval peoples, and their excessive excitability. Dating, as the extract does, from 1516, the year before the outbreak of the Protestant heresy, it presents an interesting picture of the mind of the later Middle Ages. Anno 1516, Dr. Balthasar Hubmeyer did preach with vehemence against the Jews at Regensburg, showing how great an evil doth arise to the whole German nation, not alone from their faith, but also from their usury, and how unspeakable a tribute their usury doth bear away withal. Then was there a Council held that they should pray the Emperor to the end that Jews might be driven forth. Therefore did they (the people) break their synagogue in pieces, also many of their houses, and did build in the place thereof a Temple in honour of Mary, to which they gave the name of The Fair Mary. This did some visit privily, and told that from that hour was their prayer fulfilled. So soon, therefore, as the matter became noised abroad, even then was there a running from all parts thither, as though the people were bewitched, of wife, of child, of gentlemen, some spiritual, some worldly, they coming a long way, it might be having eaten nothing. Certain children who knew not the road did come from afar with a piece of bread, and the people came with so manifold an armoury, even such as it chanced that each had, the while he was at his work, the one with a milking-pail, the other with a hay fork. Some there were that had scarce aught in the greatest cold, wherewith to cover them in barest need. Some there were that did run many miles without speaking, as they might be half-possessed or witless; some did come barefoot with rakes, axes and sickles; these had fled from the fields and forsaken their lords; some caméd in a shirt they had by chance laid hands on as they arose from their bed; some did come at midnight; some there were that ran day and night; and there was in all such a running from all lands that, in the space of but one day, many thousands of men had come in. One there was that saw miracles from so much and so divers silver, gold, wax, pictures and jewels that were brought thither. There were daily so many masses read that one priest could scarce but meet the other, as he departed from the altar. When one did read the Communion (Commun), the other did kneel before the altar with his Confiteor. These things came to pass daily till well-nigh beyond noon, and although many altars were set up both within and without the Temple, yet nevertheless could not one priest but encounter the other. The learned did sing many Carmina in praise of Fair Mary, and many and divers offices were devised of signs, of pipes and of organs. Much sick folk did they lead and bear hither, and also, as some do believe, dead men whom they brought home again restored and living. There befel also many great signs and wonders, the which it would not be fitting to tell of, and whereof an especial cheat was rumoured, in that what any brought thither, did he but vow himself with his offering, straightway he was healed, not alone from his sickness, but the living did also receive also their dead again, the blind saw, the halt ran, did leave their crutches in the Temple, and walked right from thence. Some ran hither from the war; yea, wives from their husbands, children from the obedience and will of their fathers would hither, saying that they might not remain away, and that they had no rest day nor night. |